


Unrequited Love and Reassurance

by manhwauser



Series: Subtlety and Significance [2]
Category: Assassination Classroom
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Maehara pining, Maehara's POV, Maehara's rlly into Isogai, Okano is still here tho, and a bit of angst, is it considered pining?, lol there's not much of angst actually, or maybe there isn't any
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-10
Updated: 2015-06-10
Packaged: 2018-04-03 18:52:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4111381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/manhwauser/pseuds/manhwauser
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maehara Hiroto was never reassured with his feelings.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unrequited Love and Reassurance

Maehara impatiently taps his index finger on his desk and lazily watches his classmates talk to each other, he arrived at school earlier than he expected. He lets his eyes wander around the room for the umpteenth time in the morning, it wasn't a special day nor there's something new about this day. It just felt like one of his normal days here in Class E. His eyes lands on their classroom's door only to see their male class representative entering the room.

"Good morning, Isogai-kun." He heard Kataoka greet Isogai.

"Good morning also, Kataoka-san."

He averts his attention from the two class representatives and resumes on tapping his finger on his desk _._

' _Yep, this day is definitely normal.'_

"Good morning, Maehara!"

Maehara looks up and he swears he could hear his heart pound on his ears.

_Who was he kidding?_

' _This is not normal at all.'_

He smiles brightly before greeting back with same amount of enthusiasm, "Mornin' Isogai!"

Isogai flashes another smile before leaving Maehara on his seat and walks to Kataoka's direction to start a conversation with her. Maehara watches his retreating figure and throws his head back a sigh escaping his lips.

' _How long does this have to continue?'_  He asks himself.

Maehara places a hand on his chest hearing the erratic beating of his heart; it still races whenever Isogai greets him which somehow irks him. He stares at the ceiling with an irritated expression, why can't he get rid of these sick feelings? He sighs one more time but the creases on his forehead never cease, it's been two years.  _Two whole years_ since he had come to acknowledge his feelings for his childhood friend were  _romantic_  and he doesn't have the slightest clue on how to remove these romantic feelings.

He sighs for the third time.

' _It's not like these feelings are unwelcome,'_

"They're just  _not_  necessary." He says to himself or so.

"What is not necessary?" Okano's face pops into his view.

Maehara lets out a good high-pitched but  _manly_  scream and falls backwards over his seat. The girl blinks at him and bows down to near her face at his, a curious glint reflecting on her eyes.

"What's wrong, Maehara-kun?"

The playboy stares at her before pushing her face away then standing up to brushing the invisible dirt on his uniform. He glares at Okano as the girl only smiles innocently at him, he could still feel the back of his head throb because of the strong impact caused by his fall. He rubs the aching part of the back of his head and sighs for the nth time in the morning.

"It's nothing." He dismisses Okano by tearing his gaze from her.

Maehara doesn't fail to see the  _concerned_  expression on her face before walking away.

"Ow, it still hurts. There would be probably be a bump." He whispers to himself.

Maehara picks up his fallen chair and sits on it looking for his childhood friend, silently sulking once he doesn't see a trace of Isogai in the room. He huffs a huge amount of air and leans (read: slumps) on the back of his seat his eyebrows furrowed once more.

' _Weird. Yuuma's out of sight, if anything happens to me like earlier he'd be the first one to come to my aid.'_ Maehara's brows furrow even more.

"Man, it's not like it's something serious." He sighs and touches the back of his head.

Maehara winces as he confirmed that there was a bump, he lightly taps his finger but still winces a bit because it still hurt. He rubs it trying to soothe the pain, then he felt thin fingers wrap around his wrist. He immediately snapped his head to the presence beside him and was surprised to see Isogai staring at him with worry written all-over his face.

"Don't play with it. Do you really want your bump to swell?" Isogai silently asks and applies the cold pressure on the back of Maehara's head.

Maehara's feels his heart racing once more and blood rushing up to his ears and scatters around his face. Isogai lays a hand on his shoulder and exerts a little bit of force on the cold pressure, his eyes focused on the ice bag he most likely took in the infirmary. Thankfully, their campus had an infirmary even if there was not even a single nurse provided.

"Did it hurt too much, Maehara?"

Maehara only blinks at Isogai, the latter also blinks at him noticing his friend's face was all red.

"You look so red! Are you sick?" Isogai places the back of his hand on Maehara's forehead.

Maehara  _almost_  explodes.

Isogai redraws his hand and stares at Maehara overly concerned, "You don't seem to have a fever but why is your face so red?"

' _Dammit, Hiroto stop blushing for goodness' sake!'_ He scolds himself.

"Wait here, I'll just replace the ice they melted already."

Maehara thanks the heaven's above as Isogai leaves him and wonders to himself if the ice quickly melted because of how warm his whole face was.

' _That's ridiculous.'_

 

* * *

 

 

 

"You look so exhausted."

"Barely had any sleep." Isogai replies and stifles a yawn.

Maehara frowns and stares at his friend's pale face and dark circles under his eyes. A lump in his throat grows as he tries to contemplate something to say, this hardly happens. He watches Isogai rubs his eyes and yawns once more, Maehara's frown falters and is replaced by a worried expression.

"Is there something wrong?" He warily asks, daring his friend to lie.

"Nothing," Isogai responds almost immediately.

"Yuuma," The said boy turns his head at him and widens his eyes at the abrupt shift to first-name basis.

"I had to take extra care of Mom last night, she's feeling more ill than before."

Isogai breaks their eye-contact and turns his head to the other direction; heaving a deep sigh and lightly biting his lower lip. Maehara feels his chest tighten with sympathy for his friend and shifts awkwardly on his seat not knowing what to do. He opens his mouth to say something but eventually closes it pursing his lips into a thin line.

' _Should I say it's going to be_ okay _?'_ Maehara wonders.

Isogai notices the visible failed attempts of Maehara trying to say something, "Maehara, I'm fine there's—"

The words die on Isogai's throat as he felt Maehara gently places his fingers on his hand that was resting on the desk and was slightly trembling. Maehara draws small circles with his fingers on the back of the other boy's hand a gesture of how he's comforting his childhood friend. Isogai flashes a nervous smile before turning his head to the other direction, Maehara notices the slight coating of red on the latter's cheeks, it made his heart race even more.

' _Dammit, I bet my ears are red already.'_

He continues drawing circles on Isogai's hand and sees his friend's shoulders relax to the touch, a triumphant smile crept into his lips. Now, if he could just manage to rest his hand on top of Isogai's…

Then they heard something drop.

Almost quickly, Maehara retracts his hands to his sides as both he and Isogai turn their attention where the cause of the noise was. There Okano stood clutching a pencil case between her hands with an awkward smile on her lips.

"Sorry…" She mutters quietly.

"It's okay." Isogai replies and smiles at her reassuringly.

Isogai glances at him with a smile before muttering a soft  _thanks_. Maehara blinks for a moment but nods and smiles back disregarding the erratic beating of his heart as they continued talking, the scenario earlier pushed into the back of their minds.

Albeit, they  _miss_  the relieved expression on Okano's face.

 

* * *

 

 

 

" _I'm sorry Maehara but I have duties to do."_

" _But this is the third time this week!" Maehara tries not to sound so dejected._

_Isogai gives him another apologetic smile before excusing himself and approaching Kataoka to attend some class representative duties. Maehara stood there with a sinking feeling inside him, he sighs and proceeds to the exit of their classroom._

_It's not like he could do anything about it._

Maehara frowns at the memory. Of all times he would remember it, why does it have to be now?

"Hiroto, are you alright?"

He breaks from his daze and turns to the person beside him, "Yeah, I'm fine."

It's been two weeks since Isogai rejected all his offers for them to walk home together. He scratches the back of his head, it's something he shouldn't worry about anymore, besides their male class representative is walking beside him already.

"But you were frowning earlier…"

"I'm alright, Yuuma." He waves his hand dismissively.

The latter purses his lips, unconvinced with Maehara's answer but decides not to press on.

"Looks like it's about to rain."

Maehara looks up to the skies and feels a lone droplet fall on his cheek. A single drop turns into millions and now he's already rummaging his bag for his umbrella that was always kept inside,  _deep_  inside.

"Did you bring an umbrella?" Maehara asks Isogai.

He turns to the other male and finds him shaking his head as an answer to his question. Maehara yanks his umbrella out and opens it to shelter themselves from the downpour. They stood still under the umbrella which was barely helping them not to get wet, the playboy sighs having no choice. He pulls Isogai closer to him, his arms loosely wrapping around the slightly shorter male's waist. The latter glances at him with wide eyes, surprised with the sudden action.

"It's for you not to get wet." Maehara mumbles under his breath.

"Oh how considerate of you, Hiroto." A fond smile dances across Isogai's lips and Maehara swears the whole place brightens up.

' _Who knew this sudden downpour could get pretty convenient?'_

Maehara grins at the thought and slightly tightens his arms around Isogai, the latter seems not to notice it or does not seem to mind it. They continued walking in silence with the sound of the droplets that splash on the pavements and the soft click of their heels. Maehara tries to calm down as he feel the heat coming from the other boy that is somehow making him warm despite the cold shower of rain. His cheeks flare up and his heart quickens its pace as Isogai snuggled closer to him.

' _Shit, he's so close.'_

It's not like he hasn't had someone this close to him, heck, there has been girls that always clung to him but this case is different. It was Isogai who was beside him, it was his bestfriend and apparently, it was the person he holds romantic feelings for. Maehara slowly exhales, hoping his erratic beating heart would somehow calm down and return to its normal pace.

"Say, Hiroto. I noticed you spent a lot of time with Okano-san lately."

Maehara wonders if it's bitterness that was laced in Isogai's tone.

"Yeah, she's a good company."

"She is? Okano-san is pretty nice too even though she looks neutral sometimes."

"Uh-huh."

"Do you  _think_  she's pretty?" Isogai asks.

Maehara raises an eyebrow clearly unsure where this conversation is heading.

"Well, she's pretty okay a bit boyish but she's fine."

Isogai remains silent and the latter notices he seems to be in deep thought. Maehara wonders why the topic of their conversation was Okano, he ponders again for a minute. Yes, Okano is a good company, she's nice and fun and she's pretty cute though he doesn't seem to get what is Isogai trying to imply. He furrows his eyebrows and stares intensely at the nearing puddle of water, then it hits him like a rock.

"Do you think I like Okano?" Maehara asks and Isogai stops abruptly.

"Wh-what? No, it's just that you two are close and you don't plan on dating… her?" Isogai asks his tone uncertain.

"No, we're close but I don't want to date her." Maehara answers nonchalantly as they continued walking.

"Why?"

"What do you mean by  _why_?"

"Why?" Isogai prompts and stares eagerly at Maehara.

"Yuuma, do you  _really_  want us to hook up?"

Maehara's gaze on him hardens as the latter doesn't respond, he inhales sharply as he feels his heart sink into the depths of disappointment and sadness.

"Okano is a really close friend of mine, I'm not planning on ruining our friendship just by dating her."

He explains and exhales before speaking again.

"What would you  _do_  if I'd hook up with her?"

Maehara takes deep breaths trying to calm himself, why on earth would Isogai want him to hook up with Okano? He pushes the question into the back of his mind and realizes that Isogai has stopped moving and was stiff on his place. He sighs inwardly and forces the umbrella into the shorter male's hand. Surprised with the sudden movement, Isogai snaps his head to Maehara with eyes wide and glossy. The playboy takes a moment to marvel on those beautiful brown orbs before looking away.

"Take the umbrella, I'll go first. The rain has stopped anyway."

Maehara steps forward that turns to reluctant steps farther away from Isogai. He bits the insides of his cheeks before releasing a loud 'tch' out of frustration. He continues walking the path to his place, disappointment still heavy on his chest. He doesn't even know why he's feeling guilty nor why he left Isogai alone, he sighs and ruffles his hair.  _He shouldn't really let his emotions get to him._

 

* * *

 

 

 

"Why aren't you visiting Isogai-kun on his work today? He seems a bit gloomy and lonely." Okano asks softly.

Maehara shrugs not wanting to answer Okano's question. A week has passed since that incident and he wasn't spending much time around Isogai unlike he usually did, it's not like he was ignoring Isogai's presence. The latter noticed but chose not to speak about it, much to Maehara's relief. He doesn't want to explain anything about his irrational actions and say that he was overwhelmed by his feelings. Though, the male class representative doesn't fail on greeting him every morning.

Maehara would reply a half-hearted, "Mornin'." Then Isogai would give him a small smile.

"Maehara-kun."

Maehara snaps out of his train of thoughts and turns to Okano.

"Y-yeah?"

"I said what flavor do you want, I'm buying ice cream. My treat." Okano repeats as they near on Ice cream van.

"Oh, I'd like vanilla! Iso—"  _Yuuma loves vanilla._

Okano stares at him incredulously but then turns to the ice cream vendor and recited their orders that goes along with two scoops of vanilla and one scoop of chocolate. Okano pays the correct price and hands Maehara his frozen treat. The playboy stares at it for a moment before hesitantly taking it from Okano's grasp, the girl smiles brightly at him.

"You owe me ice cream, alright."

"What?!" Maehara loudly exclaims.

"You told me this was your treat!"

Okano giggles, "Yes, it is. Enjoy, womanizer."

The  _womanizer_  grumbles something incoherent under his breath before indulging in his treat. Okano and Maehara continued to stroll around the park, relishing the calming light breeze. Maehara lets his mind wonder about a certain boy with pale gold eyes, he wonders what the boy is doing, if he's fine at his work, if he's not stressing about the incident that had happened between them.

If he's  _ever_  stressing about it, Maehara has never been so  _remorseful_  in his whole life.

* * *

 

The day passes by in a blink of an eye.

"I have to go home now, Maehara-kun. It's pretty late, I hope you had fun as I did!" Okano tries to be cheerful as she sees the neutral expression on Maehara's face.

"It was nice." Maehara replies in a daze.

Okano chews on her lower lip and forces a smile, "Alright. See you!"

The womanizer watches her stride away from him as her silhouette slowly fades in the dark. Maehara looks up at the dark skies not a single star visible, he shoves both of his hands on his pocket and releases a shaky breath once a strong gust of wind hits him. He walks the path to his place, the heels of his shoes lightly tapping the pavement. He glances upwards once again and spots the permanent crescent moon shining above, providing him light aside from the flickering lights of the street lamps.

' _Now that I think about it, we still have to assassinate Korosensei.'_

Maehara sighs and digs his hands deeper into his pockets, searching for warmth.

' _I've been too distracted this past week. My failed assassination attempt was three weeks ago already.'_

He glares at the crescent moon but averts his eyes from it to the pavement beneath him. The memory of Isogai's surprised expression with his wide and glossy eyes flash in Maehara's mind. He abruptly stops in front of a pebble and kicks it without a second thought, a heavy feeling still resting on his chest. He sighs once more and hears a faint yell in a distance.

"Hiroto-kun!"

Maehara looks up and sees Isogai's mother running to him looking so frantic.

"Obasan, what happened?" He immediately approaches her and helps her up as she almost stumbles down.

Isogai's mother was heavily breathing with her hand placed on her chest, she looked terribly pale, sick and her usual neat bun is a mess. Maehara looks at her worriedly, wondering why is she out of their house at this time of the day.

"Yuuma-kun…" She pants and holds his shoulders her arms shaking.

"H-he hasn't returned from work, I'm worried sick. He didn't send me a message also."

Her eyes reflect unease and worry, Maehara places his hands on hers and draws circles on it the same way he did to calm Isogai down. The creases on the forehead of Isogai's mother lessen and her shoulders visibly relax, Maehara smiles a bit and squeezes her hands.

"I'll look for him, please go home and rest."

She stares at his orbs before flashing a small smile at him, "Please find him."

He nods and releases his grip on her hands, Isogai's mother waves her hand before walking the path to their home. Maehara stays put on his spot and ponders where Isogai could be. Was he staying on the shop where he works? On the near riverside in their neighborhood? Or…

' _He's definitely there.'_

Maehara spins his heels and heads to the park once again, running all the way. He reaches the small playground in the park and finds his childhood friend on the swing with his head down, lightly pushing himself back. His heart starts to race but what's more important here is his bestfriend. Maehara silently approached Isogai and stood in front of the boy who had his head stooped down.

"Yuuma," He softly calls.

The said boy looks up with tears streaming down his face, his eyes widening in surprise as he realizes it's his bestfriend in front of him. Maehara stares at Isogai taken aback by the tears, his head spins with worry and concern.

"What happened?"

Isogai wipes the tears on his cheeks, " _Nothing much_."

Maehara grits his teeth and tries not to lash out on the latter, "You call this nothing? Don't  _fool_  me, Yuuma."

"You know I'm your bestfriend right? You can tell me anything, I'll be always here ready to listen to whatever you're going to say." He says his tone tender and expression soft.

Isogai looks away, "How can I tell my bestfriend if he was becoming distant to me?"

Maehara's throat dries and a lump builds up in it, he feels his palms produce cold sweat. He bits his lip and tries to construct something to say, that was his fault. He never intended to be distant but somehow his own body acts on his own.

"I'm sorry, that's my fault but please tell me what's wrong."

His eyes meets pale gold orbs, he observes how Isogai's lips quiver as he opens it to say something. He hasn't seen his friend in this state, there are times that he looks lost but never this  _distraught_. It makes Maehara's heart clench in pain, he doesn't want to  _see_  Isogai in this kind of state, he doesn't want Isogai to be  _in_  this kind of state.

"It's just Mom looks more sick than ever, she was fine a month ago but now she's just…" Isogai's grip on the chains of the swing tightens and trembles.

"I'm having a hard time taking care of her as I still have other responsibilities to do, I can't even monitor Haruko and Fuyuko's studies if they're doing well… I can't even  _help_  them." The chains shake under his grip.

"Since, I'm stressed earlier in work I was out of my mind and made a lot of mistakes. My boss threatened to fire me if I make a single mistake again." Isogai chokes on his words.

The shorter male looks up at Maehara tears uncontrollably falling from his eyes, Maehara could hear his heart drop and shatter into a million pieces. Isogai's frame was shaking, his lips were quivering as he try to chew on it to stop the tears from falling. Maehara's head was spinning, he doesn't know what to do, what should he do to  _stop_  Isogai from crying?

"Hi-hiroto, what should I do? Wh-what should I do?! Hiroto I do-don't know what to do! I don't—"

He silences Isogai with his lips.

His eyes flutters shut as he could feel the insides of him exploding like fireworks, warmth spreading to his whole body like a wildfire. His heart was doing every somersault and flip flops it could and the fluttering feeling in the pit of his stomach has no end. Isogai's lips were chapped but nevertheless soft just as what Maehara has expected. He pulled back and opened his eyes to see Isogai's surprised expression, which was expected also.

"Yuuma, don't forget that I'm always here for you. You don't have to face these struggles all alone, okay? Your Mom is really worried that you didn't went straight home, please don't forget that there are people for you." Maehara says softly caressing Isogai's cheek.

As realization dawned to him his blood turned into ice,  _'Crap, I just kissed him.'_

Maehara sighs inwardly and lets a smile dance across his features, atleast he has clearly conveyed his feelings already. Isogai's never the one to ignore you if you ever have feelings for him that he can't return, besides, he can live with just being childhood friends. He suddenly feels arms wrapping around his neck and the next thing he knew was Isogai's lips on his own. Maehara's eyes widened twice the size of the original.

As his senses came back to him, he closed his eyes and snaked an arm around Isogai's waist to pull him closer. He tilts his head to the side and smiles at the kiss.

_He's reassured about his feelings now._

**Author's Note:**

> Hello guys! :D  
> Another MaeIso fic from me! Hopefully, Maehara here isn't that ooc, which is what I'm afraid of.  
> Anyways, this is supposed to be posted as a chapter two of _'Of Longing Glances and Light Touches'_ but meh why not post it as a individual fic lol.  
>  Tbh, I didn't plan to post this here on Ao3 haha(but this is posted on FFnet fyi) but then _why not?_  
>  I'm already working on Isogai's POV haha since I planned on completing all of their povs.  
> I hope you guys like this! 
> 
> Constructive criticism is still welcomed.


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